Radio, Radio and More Radio Please!

Since last week I have been busy playing radio making some great contacts on many different bands. The week started off on 40m where I was in company with local Hams Adam - 2E0LXA and Phil - M1PAC. We were working as a group on the now QRM free part of 40m and managed contacts from G - land to Stateside. We had lots of QSOs with many stations calling in. I don’t think I’ve had quite so much fun on 40 in a long time. We will be active throughout the week once again as a group, if you do hear us please call in it will be a pleasure to get you in the log. We’re usually found around 7.130 +/- QRM from around 20.00 UTC.

Other news was when I worked Steve DL1YAL “The Yorkshireman in Germany” via VO-52 for the first time. Steve has recently acquired a trusty old Yaesu FT790r and was coming through great during the pass. We have yet to work on FO-29, AO-27 and SO-50 as well as the ISS repeater.

I have also had a lot of fun contacting a lot of my Ham friends and arranging skeds via Twitter, it sure is fun to Tweet, keep an eye on my Tweets to find out where I’m active.

With the field day activities and various contests that have been taking place my radios have been busy up and down the bands all weekend. I was fortunate to catch the back end of some terrific ES taking place on 144 ssb, this happened on Saturday evening where I worked 2 brand new DXCC on 144MHz. The stations I worked were; CT1HZE - Joe, at a distance of 1191.9 miles (1918.2 km) and EA7TL - Juan, at a distance of 1210.6 miles (1948.2 km).
Following on from such a good weekend on Sunday AM Louise (M3TLL) and I set off on our way to the York Rally. It was an exciting drive as we ended up driving through torrential rain but the old mobile shack got us there safely.
The rally was held at York racecourse, approximately an hour’s drive away.
We weren’t there long before we bumped into fellow Craggies and other Ham friends and after a bit of chatting we were off to find some bargains.
Adam - 2E0LXA & Phil - M1PAC, pleased with there bargains!
Myself & Kevin - M0XLT, In deep conversation.


Whilst I was hunting for something for 435Mhz in the form of a Yagi Louise spotted my all-time favourite QRP Satellite radio the FT-470. Louise knew I already had one and rated it tremendously so she quickly alerted me so I could grab this bargain one at the rally. I won’t tell you how much I paid but it was a third of the price I paid five years ago for the one I already have. After comparing it to the modern transceivers I know I’ve got a bargain, I will be testing it out some more tomorrow. The other bargain I managed to gain was a nice 10 element 70cm yagi beam which I’ve already installed and it has been grafted to the IOio to make the ultimate satellite antenna hi hi.
You can see a picture of it here. I’ve already tried it on VO-52 and FO-29 with some good signals coming through. I am looking forward to tomorrow night so I can catch AO-51 and SO-50 on the new IO/10-ele satellite buster.

Stealthy Simple Antennas Caught On Video

After a few nudges and hints to put a video together containing my Humble hombrew and commercial efforts that I call my Antenna set up, here it is!
My Antennas By 2E0HTS.

Nice Opening On 20M

Tonight whilst doing the religious tune around the HF bands I was fortunate to come across the CQ Call of LU3DX - Luc from Argentina.
I gave just one shout back and was surprised to hear Luc return asking for my Pre-Fix.
We exchanged 5/8 - 9 reports both ways on 14.208 MHZ, the band was in good condition.

I made the contact using: Yaesu 767GX Transceiver, Heil Goldline microphone, and 50 watts into a vertical Delta Loop.

I seem to work the most DX after 10 PM local time and once again I timed it right for some more late night DX.

Working AO-51 Earth Orbiting Satellite Using QRP Equipment.

The 2E0HTS Ham Shack Gets a New Desk

Last week I finished building up my new office desk which was to be used to house both computer and radio gear. The desk assembly took long enough (flat pack), but the real work was re-fitting the radio’s, feeder’s, mike’s, and the rest of the ham radio paraphernalia. Since the re-arranging of the equipment has been finalised I have had the opportunity to play radio and last night I worked 9 US stations which most were 5/9.

The new shack desk wasn’t stamped and approved until a visit and tinker around with the rigs and a quick swing in the chair by old mate Barry – 2E0OOC (Pictured above) had taken place. Once I could prise 2E0OOC out of the hot seat I managed to get back on 20m and play some more before the evening comes to an end. I wonder where the weekend went?

New Treads For The Toyota Mobile Ham Station

Today I used my holiday day off work to tinker with the Toyota to ensure many more miles of driving/Dx-ing. I started by fitting some new anti roll bar bushes as the originals have had plenty of stick with the 1.5 mile long dirt track to the qth. The rubber bushes were cheap enough and I easily fitted the new ones in both sides in just over an hour which included a tea break.
Later in the day after testing out the now silent drive over the bumps I got 4 new tyres fitted and balanced, the mobile station is once again ready to roll.

On board the Toyota Estima 4X4, I run two antenna mounts - HF & VHF, with a variety of Maldol and Comet mono band HF whips, as well as a watson dual band whip into a Yaesu FT-857 radio.
Bands regularly used /mobile are: 80m, 40m, 20m, 15m, 10m, 6m, 2m & 70cms, I am mainly found on 20M more often than not but do get on the other bands as well.

73 have a great weekend and hope to hear you from my mobile!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

I have finally finished most of the jobs that I have had looming in the background at home which has kept me occupied over the last week. We now have a very nice Veranda to sit out on during the summer evenings were i will be able to play some radio (especially Satellite operations). I also have built a fantastic new office desk/shack bench which accommodates the radio gear and p.c admirably. Louise is highly suited as last week I built up a new sofa and chair where she can now be found usually semi horizontally.

I have also set up an account on twitter and from now on I can be found here - Twitter 2E0HTS , hope to catch up with some of you soon.

Now that things are settling down again I am planning on been active tonight on 40M from around 19.30utc, see you on the bands!

QRZ 40 Meters!

After having so much fun the other night I decided to play some more on 40M and ended up working many Amateur Radio Stations on 7.156 mhz (40M). I was also joined by local stations: Adam - 2E0LXA, Phil - M1PAC and Craig - M6CIW.
Check out the latest video here:

We had some great contacts with a lot of "rag chewing" going on and I was also called by some of my other radio friends over in Europe as well as lots of new contacts.
A special hello goes out to Peter - DC2PM, Ton - PHoTR and Satellite buddy Steve - DL1YAL who were also on the band with me last night. Catch you guys later!

Thanks to all Stations worked on 7.156mhz, all were big signals!
2E0LXA
M6CIW
M1PAC
ON3TD/M
OZ/DH8IJ
G0KSS
MI5JYK
M3ULT
M1JHG
GW6GCK
DC2PM
2W0TAR
MI3OZX
M0HEM
MW3VQJ
DL6AN
PA3YH
DL1YAL
DJ5DC
EI9JO
PH0TR
PA3FYI
Hope to catch you all on the bands soon, I should be back on the Air tonight.

73 Have a great weekend

Foundation Licence Exam Success

Today Adam Hanson (pictured above) successfully passed the Foundation Licence exam at the College where I work.

Adam has been with me in the Fabrication and Welding department for the last three years where he has just about finished his level 2 City & Guilds in Fabrication & Welding.

During Adams time at the College he has also attended the College radio club where I am the RSGB (Radio Society of Great Britain) registered instructor.

Adam has shown a keen interest in Amateur Radio and has been studying hard for the exam.

Well done Adam! I cant wait to work you when you get your new Call sign - M6???

It is nice to know that young Hams are taking the hobby seriously and will help to keep Amateur radio alive for many years to come.

New Doublet Working Well On 40M

please click on log to enlarge

Last night was spent calling CQ on 40m, I was very pleased to make many interesting contacts on the band.
I was very surprised how well my relatively newly installed 130ft home brew Doublet was performing and I made some great signal report exchanges.

Many Stations were operating with only a 40/50 watts and the odd station was only running 5 watts. I managed to work into Europe - Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden and European Russia.

I also had some great contacts up and down G-Land working Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland with 5/9 reports both ways and sometimes stronger. Later in the evening I was called by a Canadian Mobile station from Halifax in Nova Scotia.

All in all, the entire evening provided some great conversation both local and DX all on 7.175 MHZ. I like thank all of the Stations that came back to my CQ call and I shall be active tonight somewhere near by that frequency again calling CQ. Good DXing and happy weekend.

144 SSB Contest

Last nights VHFCC Contest was as good fun as usual on the 2m ssb band, I used the FT-847 and 30 watts into a homebrew IOIo loop antenna.